Vietnam auto market record: Every 8 seconds someone places a deposit on VF 3

VinFast creates new record with nearly 28 thousand "sure buy" deposits for VF 3

On May 16, VinFast officially announced the deposit results for the VF 3 model with a record number: 27,649 deposits after 66 hours of opening for sale. The above achievement has helped VinFast VF 3 become the car model with a record number of orders in the entire Vietnamese automobile market. It even took the company only 3 days to... break its previous record with 25,000 VF e34 orders achieved after 3 months in 2021.

Notably, unlike other record-breaking times, VinFast VF 3 buyers cannot refund, cancel or transfer their deposits. This means that the 27,649 deposits VinFast received did not include any “fun” orders, but all those who deposited 15 million VND were certain of their choice, and will be the owners of VF 3 from this coming August.

Moreover, compared to the selling price of 235 million VND, the deposit of 15 million VND, equivalent to about 6%, is not a small number when compared to the deposit/selling price ratio of many electric car models that have achieved impressive deposits.

For example, the Tesla Cybertruck model had a starting price of $39,900 (about 1 billion VND) when it was first announced in 2019, but customers only needed to deposit $100 (about 2.5 million VND), equivalent to 0.25% of the selling price, and could refund/cancel the deposit until the time of delivery.

In fact, many companies allow deposit refunds/cancellations, so depositing multiple cars "for fun" and then canceling to get another car is normal for many consumers.

With a huge number of orders in just 66 hours, on average, every minute 7 Vietnamese people decide to deposit VF 3 and successfully pay, meaning every 8 seconds there is a person buying a car.

For comparison, in 2023, there were nearly 370,000 cars sold in the Vietnamese market (according to data from VAMA, TC Motor), so on average, 0.7 cars were sold every minute. The fact that VinFast recorded a huge number of deposits at a rate 10 times higher than the market with only one car model is an unprecedented phenomenon.

Even when compared to some technology products that have "stormed" the Vietnamese market, such as the iPhone 13, which reached 18,000 orders in 1 week, an average of 1.8 units/minute, and the Samsung Galaxy S7, which reached an average of 1 unit/minute... this is still an unimaginable number, especially when an electric car is worth ten times more than a smartphone.

“Unprecedented” business strategy in the automobile market

On social networking groups about cars, many people expressed their excitement at being one of the pioneering customers, contributing to creating a record number for the market.

“It’s been a long time since the Vietnamese auto market has had such a memorable record. It’s so impressive,” said Nguyen Tuan (Hanoi). According to him, VinFast’s 27,649 deposits in just 3 days even exceeded the number of best-selling car models in the Vietnamese market in the whole of 2023, with the top model reaching just over 19,000 units.

“VinFast sells cars in 3 days, which is equivalent to other models selling in more than… 300 days. By the end of the year, if VinFast delivers 20,000 cars according to its expected delivery schedule, VF 3 can completely lead the market in terms of sales,” said Mr. Tuan.

Explaining this record, consumer finance expert Dr. Hoang Tien Duc analyzed that this is the first time in Vietnam that automobile products have been put up for sale on a variety of platforms: from online deposits on websites to e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, VinID, and at the same time, livestream sales with "hot" names that are loved by young people.

These are trendy sales methods that attract the attention of a large number of users, especially the “technology generation” Gen Y and Gen Z. Previously, this method was often only applied to popular consumer goods.

“The fact that for the first time a brand has brought a high-value item like cars to platforms that are close and accessible to the majority also reflects VinFast's goal: to popularize electric vehicles in Vietnam.

In addition to the strengths of the car itself: beautiful design, good price policy, many special incentives, it is billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong's bold multi-channel strategy, daring to do what no one thought of, that has created such an 'unimaginable' record," Dr. Duc affirmed.

According to information from VinFast, of the 27,649 orders received, more than 50% were online orders, showing the outstanding efficiency of the O2O (Online-2-Offline) business model that the company pioneered in the Vietnamese automobile market right from the time it entered.

With good policies and many plus points to convince users, expert Hoang Tien Duc predicts that the number of VF 3 piles will continue to increase sharply in the coming time, making VinFast's electric car model quickly become the national car model of the Vietnamese market.

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Within the framework of the campaign “Fierce Vietnamese Spirit”, customers who buy VF 3 cars on installment can borrow up to 70%-80% of the car value within 8 years, with a maximum interest rate of 5% in the first 2 years and the total installment payment for the entire loan period is only about 2 million VND/month. If paying 100% of the car value in full, customers will receive a 4% discount on the selling price, saving up to 10 million VND.